the end is near

that sounds dramatic - but I only mean my sock project:) I finished the pair of simple socks knitted frrom handspun jacobs (why didn't I take a pic of them?). and I have just one picture sock and a bit of the foot of the other sock to do. plus of course the finishing, i-cords, fuchsia flowers and embroidery. I think I'll manage - but not with a lot of time to spare. note to myself: do try and start projects earlier.... will I ever listen to myself?:)

those are all the batts - finished to singles, not totally even, but nice and soft. I decided to use not the carded blend of blues and white, but the one I spun from pieces of top. all the rest (apart from the gold on top and the white) are lightly blended on the drum carder.

the sky, worked in rows, and a little bit of the roof - upside down! I didn't really like the long narrow stripes in the test sock, so I knitted clouds with short rows... typically irish: blue sky, but not without a few clouds, and even a bit of grey here and there....

 this is my hand drawn chart and the leg part of the sock - what a mess, lots of ends everywhere and threads dangling. I used quite a lot as longer pieces without a ball to feed from, because most of the colours, e.g. from the cottage parts, didn't use much at all. and it's so much easier to pull loose threads out of the mess than trying to disentangle several balls of wool! btw, if you want to make your own picture sock, you can download a grid here.

 this is the leg of the first sock finished... the knitting part at least. it still looks a bit bare, but I decided to add window frames, flowers etc. in embroidery. knitting them into the fabric would have meant even more threads, tangles and jittery nerves:) I thought for quite some time about the colour of the windows, but decided to choose "sky" colours - they reflect the good weather instead of being dark holes in the cottage wall. the upper edge still rolls of course, because the cast-on is done over a row of chain stitches - I'll add the i-cord edge last.

this is the "other side" of the sock, in the middle a path, walls in grey on either side and on the far left the fuchsia bush, which will carry the beady flowers when finished. I will also add an embroidered garden gate across the path. the foot will be all green, which makes for quicker knitting at least. I might still add a few embroidered stitches in yellow and white, for dandelion and daisies, but beads don't work so well on the foot, even if they are only small seed beads. it should still be a wearable sock and not a work of art - but unusable!

I hope I can finish this sock tonight and start with the second tomorrow - but depending on the weather I still have a lot of work to do in the garden!

looking at the last picture I saw just now that the sky looks a bit like sky, clouds along the horizon and the sea at the bottom! not intentional, but maybe it's a cottage close to the beach?:)